COSHOCTON – Officials say a new jail monitoring system will increase efficiency and accountability at the Coshocton Justice Center.

The Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office is looking into purchasing and installing the Guard Tour System made by Timekeeping Systems. Cost would be $4,795 with a $2,500 grant toward the system currently available through the County Risk Sharing Authority. This is a similar grant program which provided $10,000 for the purchase of a recently installed body scanner at the jail.

The system consists of several checkpoints that would be placed around the jail. Corrections officers have a data collection device, called the Pipe for its shape, that they touch to the nodes to denote where they were and when. A wallet the officers would carry can have up to 12 pre-programmed responses for logging, such as all clear, meals delivered and those on suicide watch are fine among others.

Jail Administrator Chip Udischas said the system is easy to upgrade and move, which would be important if a new county jail long wanted comes to fruition.

While this would do nothing to help the justice center solve state compliance issues due to outdated facilities and overcrowding, it would be beneficial for jail audits or if litigation regarding a jail incident would arise. Administrative Lieutenant James Crawford views the system as more of a need than a want.

“Our system is great the way we log now, but every time we have a jail audit we have to answer ‘when was this done, were these times changed,’” Crawford said. “This takes all the questions out of the equation.”

One Pipe and comment wallet would be carried by a female officer on duty and another by a male officer. Up to 20 wall mounts for the memory discs would be placed around the justice center. The package also includes nine holsters for the Pipe, one for each full-time corrections officer.

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Coshocton Justice Center Jail Administrator Lt. Chip Udischas led a tour for Coshocton County Commissioners and state officials in October in this Tribune file photo. A new electronic monitoring system being considered would improve efficiency and accountability at the jail.(Photo: Sara C. Tobias, Sara C. Tobias/Tribune)

At the end of shifts, or more if needed, officers would touch the Pipe to a USB downloader that would record information. This information would go straight to Udischas’ computer, allowing him to review logs and make sure officers are doing the proper checks.

Udischas said checks must be done on regular housing areas every 60 minutes. Suicide watches must be logged every 10 minutes. The new electronic system will save time for officers in having to manually record the logs.

“If officers are busy they wind up doing their log after the fact,” Udischas said. “With this system, when an officer logs a block check it’s because they are physically standing at the checkpoint, so we’ll have really accurate times on all our block checks and reduce officer work.”